Zonosemata Main | Tephritidae Main | Diptera Home | SEL Home

Zonosemata minuta Bush

Dorsal habitus, male.

Recognition
Click here for full description and more images
This species, like other Zonosemata species, is mostly yellow with a few dark brown markings on the thorax and abdomen. The scutum has three white stripes, including a medial one, and dark brown markings at least posteriorly (often somewhat U-shaped). The wing is mostly hyaline with 5 transverse bands in a "spider-mimic" pattern.

Zonosemata minuta differs from all of the other species of Zonosemata by its abdominal markings, which include dark brown lateral spots on the distal 3 tergites (3-5 in male, 4-6 in female), those on the distal 2 tergites large. The katepisternal dark brown spot is probably variable; it is present but very small in the examined specimens. The presutural sublateral scutal brown spot is present, although it is sometimes just a linear mark.

Classification and Evolutionary Relationships
Order: Diptera. Family: Tephritidae. Subfamily: Trypetinae. Genus: Zonosemata. Species: minuta. Author: Bush.
Relationships among the species of Zonosemata have not been analyzed.

Names Used for this Species
Zonosemata minuta Bush 1966: 319.
Click here to link to fly names database

Type data
Holotype - Male (National Museum of Natural History (USNM)), Jamaica. Montego Bay, 2 Jul 1957, J. W. Boyes.

Distribution
Zonosemata minuta is known only from Jamaica.
Click here for specimen data
Click here for distribution map

Biology
As far as known, all species of Zonosemata breed in fruits of species of Solanaceae, and mainly of the genus Solanum. Zonosemata minuta has not been reared, but two males were collected by T. H. Farr "at fruit of Solanum verbascifolium" (Norrbom 1990).

Economic Significance
Zonosemata minuta is not considered a pest species.

References
Click here to access fruit fly literature database
Bush, G. L. 1966. The genus Zonosemata, with notes on the cytology of two species. Psyche (Cambridge) (1965) 72: 307-323. [p. 319, description]
Hernández-Ortiz, V. 1989. Una especie nueva de Zonosemata (Díptera: Tephritidae) y clave de identificación de las especies del género. Anales del Instituto de Biologia, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Serie Zoologia 60: 205-210. [p. 207, in key]
Norrbom, A. L. 1990. Notes on Zonosemata Benjamin (Diptera: Tephritidae) and the status of Cryptodacus scutellatus Hendel (= Z. ica Steyskal syn. n.). Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien 91: 53-55. [p. 55, specimen data]
Norrbom, A. L. 2002. A new species and key for the genus Zonosemata Benjamin (Diptera: Tephritidae). Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 104: 614-623. [p. 615, in key]
Norrbom, A. L., L. E. Carroll, F. C. Thompson, I. M. White & A. Freidberg. 1999. Systematic database of names, pp. 65-251. In F. C. Thompson (ed.), Fruit Fly Expert Identification System and Systematic Information Database. Myia 9, vii + 524 pp. & Diptera Data Dissemination Disk (CD-ROM) (1998) 1. [p. 249, in catalog]